Col Amethyst
by lizardsocks
Summary: O'Neill ends up in a world that seems pretty familiar - except that an alien named Pearl comes through the Stargate behind him, and someone named Amethyst has his job.
1. Chapter 1

"What's going on?" asked Major General Hammond as he walked into the operations room. "Why isn't the iris up?"

"There's an SG-1 signature coming from the other side of the wormhole. The colonel thought we should see what it was about."

"But every member of SG-1 is right here in this base."

Hammond looked out the window into the other room.

The Stargate was active, glowing blue, and at least a dozen guards had their weapons trained on it. And there, standing right in front of the ramp leading up to the gate, was the leader of SG-1, her radio in one hand and her whip in the other. Hammond walked over to the microphone.

"Are you sure about this, Colonel?"

Amethyst briefly turned around. "If someone nabbed some of our equipment, sir, we should really know who it is. They're probably gonna be poking around later."

"And you're sure you can take them?" Hammond asked.

"I'm willing to risk it."

The first figure emerged from the wormhole: a man named Jack O'Neill. Hammond recognized him; he was a retired Air Force officer, having been involved in the first major mission with the Stargate. But that didn't explain what he was doing _here_. As O'Neill stepped out of the Stargate and onto the ramp, he looked up at the operations room window.

"Sir?" he asked. "What's with the welcome party?"

The guards turned their attention back to the gate as a second figure began to emerge. It appeared to be a tall woman, almost tripping as she came out - likely unfamiliar with gate travel.

"Mind introducing your friend, Colonel O'Neill?" asked Hammond.

O'Neill glanced at the figure who had stepped out of the gate. She was looking around as though she didn't know where she was.

"I have... no idea who this is, sir," said a confused O'Neill. "Probably a wrong number."

Amethyst slowly stepped up onto the ramp.

_"Pearl?_ Where have you been all these years?"

"What do you mean, Amethyst?" Pearl asked. "I just saw you an hour ago. You were at Steven's house."

"Who's Steven?"

O'Neill glanced back and forth at the two women - one in a tidy-looking getup with a jacket, the other in full Air Force uniform - before looking back up at Hammond.

"...Who's _Amethyst_?"


	2. Chapter 2

"We're gonna have to keep the two of you here for a while," Amethyst said. "Listen, I don't think you're dangerous, but we gotta make sure."

"Oh," Pearl said, "of course! That makes sense." She sat calmly on one of the beds and gestured towards O'Neill. "It sounds like the colonel comes from an organization like yours, so I'm sure he understands as well."

O'Neill leaned against the wall. "Yeah, what else is new."

As Amethyst closed the door behind her, the rest of the SG-1 team - Garnet, Daniel Jackson, and Capt. Sam Carter - approached from the adjacent hallway.

"Well, we can be sure that's not _our_ O'Neill," said Carter. "Hammond made a call to his house. He was there."

"So maybe they are from alternate universes?" Daniel asked. "Is there something about travel through the Stargate that could cause that to happen?"

"Maybe it wasn't the Stargate," said Garnet. "The Gem warp streams use similar wormholes when they travel between planets."

"And there was a Pearl who arrived with him," Carter said. "It sounds like _she_ was trying to use one of the Gem warp pads."

"Then how did O'Neill get here?" asked Amethyst. "Were they just, like, mushed together? Does Homeworld have alternate reality stuff?"

Garnet shook her head. "No. I've seen time travel, but never anything like this. Perhaps it was Goa'uld technology."

"...And maybe it was by accident." Daniel pulled a radio from his pocket and looked at it. "Maybe someone was _attempting_ time travel. The radio Colonel O'Neill had, it must have been 15 years older than this one."

"But the way he described it," said Carter, "we weren't any younger than he expected us to be. So he would have to be from a world where we were all born 15 years earlier."

"Well, can't we just ask him what year it is?" Amethyst asked. She looked up at Garnet.

Garnet shrugged. "Sounds good to me."

* * *

As O'Neill entered the conference room, his attention was drawn to the computer monitor on the table.

"So this is the flatscreen you were talking about?"

"Yes," Carter said. "They're common nowadays. They've become quite affordable."

"Let me guess. You've probably changed how lightbulbs work too." As O'Neill said this, he made a mental note to check if they actually _had_ changed how lightbulbs worked; some of the fixtures in his house had been a pain to reach, even with a ladder, and he would appreciate not having to change the bulb so often.

The rest of the SG-1 team entered the room, along with Pearl and Hammond.

"Now that we're all together - and we're comfortable that you are who you say you are - it's time for some proper introductions," Hammond said. "Colonel Amethyst here is the official leader of SG-1. We recruited her to the Air Force after the Gem homeworld became aware of our location. Stargate Command was formed as the first line of defense against such extraterrestrial threats."

"Although it's really been the Goa'uld who've been giving us trouble," said Amethyst. "That's why we brought in Daniel. He discovered their influence in ancient Egypt, so he knew more about the, than anyone."

O'Neill leaned forward. "So, in this universe, people believed you."

"Well," Daniel said, "everyone on this world knows about the Gems. It wasn't a stretch to think there was other intelligent life out there."

"We wanted other Gems to be involved in this too," Amethyst said. "Garnet, she's got thousands of years of experience. And Capt. Carter's been working on the Stargate program longer than any of us. She helped figure out how to make the computer adjust to the weird way the planets all moved over time."

"It's a problem the Gems are familiar with as well," Garnet said. "But Carter's solution is far more elegant."

"If I may ask," Pearl said. "How did you know we were telling the truth?"

"Well, Daniel and I have known Jack O'Neil for quite a while," said Hammond. "And Garnet and Amethyst knew you - at least, our version of you."

"Nobody would fake the two of you so well," Amethyst said, "and not pretend to _be_ the versions of them that we know. Besides, we've got to figure out why this happened, in case there's something bigger going on."

"You know," said O'Neill, "my world's SG-1 has Daniel and Carter on it too. And I have Amethyst's job. But there's also a guy named Teal'c."

"Teal'c?" Daniel asked. "The first prime of Apophis?"

"That's the one. Is he still alive in this timeline?"

"Probably. I've never actually seen him in person, but when the colonel came to Abydos looking for me... My wife and I followed her back to Earth, and Apophis attacked while we were gone."

"We didn't find out until weeks later," Carter continued. "We went back when we realized from some of Daniel's photos that the cartouche might have Stargate addresses on it. And the cartouche _ was _still there, but... there was nobody left."

* * *

As the rest of the staff filed out of the room, Pearl stayed behind a little longer.

"Amethyst?" she asked. "How'd you end up here?"

"Well, there's not much else to say." Amethyst shrugged. "Homeworld probably noticed the temporary warp stream when Daniel dialed out to Abydos. They started sending probes, and one thing led to another, and eventually the Air Force went out looking for Gems living on Earth who could help."

"And you accepted?"

"...What, is it weird to see me in uniform?"

"Well, yes! You never even wore clothes that _fit_ you before!"

Amethyst got up and looked at the star map on the wall.

"I know it must be a little funny to see _me_, in the military, following other people's orders," she said. "But if there's one thing I'm willing to fight for, it's this planet. This is where I was born, and it's where I've lived my whole life. This is where Garnet was able to find a home for herself. And right now, I think Stargate Command is the best shot we have at defending it."


	3. Chapter 3

Once the major general was confident that O'Neill and Pearl weren't threats, he had the personnel on the base set up accommodations for the two of them. _Separate _accommodations, thankfully - apparently, Pearl didn't sleep, and now O'Neill didn't either, not when she was there sitting on the bed awake all night, perfectly still.

As he walked down the hallway after getting out of bed, he saw Carter and flagged her down.

"Sam?"

She turned around. "Yes?"

"Is there some way I can... make myself useful around here?"

"We're working on getting you back to your world, Jack. SG-3 thinks they might have a lead."

"I know that, and I appreciate it. But I don't want to sit around waiting. Surely you have other missions you're working on. Places to be. I could help with that."

"I'll see what I can do," Carter said. "Are you sure about this, though? There might be other differences between this world and yours. It could take some getting used to."

"Oh, I'm counting on it. You're gonna have to fill me in on a lot. But with any luck, I'll know things you won't."

"All right." Carter nodded. The two of the approached the door to the cafeteria, and she gestured towards it. "If you're gonna get up to speed, it wouldn't hurt to start now."

* * *

"So." O'Neill sat down across from Garnet. "Let's start with the big thing I don't know."

"Which is?"

O'Neill pointed to his bowl. "What _is_ this?"

"It is oatmeal."

Garnet adjusted her glasses slightly, and O'Neill noticed that she didn't have any food in front of her. "And you're not hungry?"

"Gems don't eat. Well, for the most part."

The two of them briefly glanced at Amethyst, sitting a couple tables over.

"Okay, seriously this time. What's that she's eating?"

"I think it's pie crust."

"Like, just the crust? They _make _that?" O'Neill looked around. "I never get pie crust."

"You were going to ask about the Gems."

O'Neill looked back at Garnet. "Yeah. How'd you know?"

"I have a talent for predicting the future."

"So you know what's gonna happen?"

"It's not about knowing what _will_ happen. It's about knowing the possibilities, so you can take control of your actions and turn the possibilities into reality."

"Okay." O'Neill nodded. He couldn't tell if he understood, or was just pretending to. "So the Gems are from space originally, right? Planet P1A-026. Does it have a name?"

"Homeworld."

"Creative. And you came from there."

"Yes. But that was a very long time ago. I've lived here ever since the rebellion. I was part of a group that called ourselves the Crystal Gems. We fought for the protection of this planet, a place where we could be free, and for the protection of the life that existed here."

"I guess I have you to thank that I ended up here, and not on a lifeless hunk of rock. Was Amethyst with you too?"

"Homeworld had been growing quartzes in the Prime Kindergarten before we drove them out. But we didn't find her until after the war was already over. She emerged much later than the others."

"So she was a solider, _grown _by the enemy with the intention of having her fight. And you took her in?"

"It's no different from how any of us other Gems started out," Garnet said. "And you are a solider as well. That doesn't mean that you can't live and work with us. That's how it is with her."

"Well, I suppose you're right," said O'Neill. When he had heard these aliens were living gemstones - with bodies made out of light - he had expected them to seem a little more, well, alien. Sure, Garnet was a bit atypical, but so was Teal'c - they had come from different cultures, after all. But it seemed as though someone like Amethyst, a being _designed _to fight, would act more like a robot, or maybe a computer, and yet she didn't seem much different from any number of women and men O'Neill had served with over the years.

"So everything but your gemstones are just projections, right? That explains how you can shapeshift, but... how do you pick things up and move them around?"

"There are many things that even the Gems don't understand about themselves."

"Well, at least I'm not the only one feeling a bit confused."

* * *

O'Neill wasn't the only one with a desire to get out and do something to contribute. Pearl had started taking on some of the more menial and routine tasks on the base - not because she felt like she should, but because she actually wanted to. The structure of it all helped set her mind at ease.

She couldn't help but worry about the people she had left behind in the other world. The Earth she came from had never seen any aliens besides her and the other Gems; at least, none that Rose knew about, and it seemed like if anyone would know, it would be her. Pearl knew that Garnet, Amethyst, and Steven were going to be OK, no matter what. She had to keep reminding herself that Steven was able to take care of himself now. Human lifespans seemed so short to her; she wasn't sure if she could ever develop a meaningful relationship with one, like Rose had learned to do.

One of the tasks Pearl volunteered for was the armed defense of the Stargate during an unscheduled activation. As the iris went up and the airmen surrounded the gate's exit with their guns drawn, Pearl would pull out her spear and go into her battle stance.

"What if there are beings out there who you can't fight with Earth weapons?" Pearl explained to Capt. Carter. "Or whose weapons I might have an immunity to?"

"We have considered having Gems help guard the gate," agreed Carter. "But there just aren't many of them on Earth. All of the Gems who are helping us here at SGC are already assigned to one of the SG teams. We also have to consider the possibility that Gems could be influenced or controlled by an outside force."

Pearl nodded solemnly.

"Of course, the same is true of humans," Carter continued. "We've seen that much. I have to agree with the general here - one Gem is better than none." She pulled a chair over and sat down. "By the way, how are you doing so far? If you don't mind me asking."

"Oh, you've all treated me very well," Pearl said. "There's nothing to worry about."

"Wouldn't it be hard on you, though? Being stuck in a world that's not your own?"

Pearl sighed. "I suppose it is. Maybe it's because I'm worried about the people I know back home. Or maybe it's just that I still don't really know what Amethyst and Garnet think of me. They're not with Rose anymore, clearly, and I haven't been able to get myself to ask why."

"I've asked, and I don't know either," Carter said. "But from the sounds of it, it sounds like they're just trying to protect her privacy. I honestly think they're just here because they want to help us with the Stargate program."

"I suppose you're right. It's just that the idea of hurting someone, of driving them away because of something I did..."

"Even if there were something that happened, it wasn't _you _who did it. Your experiences make you different people."

Pearl remembered what O'Neill had told her, that night in the holding cell. One of his colleagues had wound up in an alternate universe as well, and _that _world's version of O'Neill had decided to send a bomb through the gate to destroy the planet Chulak. That version of O'Neill had never met Teal'c, and his version of Earth was under siege by the Goa'uld - and that was enough to drive him to make a fundamentally decision than this O'Neill would have.

Of course, there was also a _third _O'Neill out there, the one native to the world she was on. But Pearl tried not to think too hard about that. Two of them was enough for her.


	4. Chapter 4

A few days later, the SGC recieved an unusual radio communication through the Stargate. As Carter got off the elevator in the morning, Amethyst was already waiting for her.

"Hey, Sam!" she said. "Ready to get to work? Like, right away?"

"Sometimes I forget you live down here."

"Yeah, well, the Air Force doesn't make me clean my room."

* * *

The whole SG-1 team - Carter, Amethyst, Garnet, and Daniel - stood in the embarcation room in front of the Stargate. Amethyst briefed them as the technicians prepared a reconnaissance rover - or as they called it, the Mobile Analytic Laboratory Probe, or MALP.

"About forty minutes ago, someone dialed us through the Stargate from P1W-358," Amethyst said. "No one tried to go through, which is good 'cause they would have like, disintegrated. But we got a radio signal. We think it's a distress call from the Tok'ra."

"It matches the profile of the transmitter Amethyst left with them last time we saw them," Garnet added.

"So the Tok'ra are asking for our help?" Daniel asked.

"Either that, or it's a trap." Amethyst shrugged. "I gotta admit, I didn't get the impression that they were that impressed with us. I don't know _what_ they think we could help with. But I think we need to try. We'll send the MALP ahead of us, to make sure it's safe, but you should probably start getting ready."

* * *

There was a light snow in the field on P5W-318 when SG-1 arrived.

"Are you still reading that radio transmission?" Carter asked.

"Yeah," Daniel said. "It's coming from up here on the surface. If it is from the Tok'ra, they must have already abandoned their underground tunnels when escaping the planet."

Amethyst walked over to the MALP. "If they're not down there, then shouldn't they be up here? Maybe someone just left their radio behind when they got away."

"Well, someone must have been here to dial us through the gate," Daniel said.

"Besides," said Garnet, "the Tok'ra are our allies. We've promised them our help. We shouldn't leave until we know they're all right."

The team followed the source of the signal to a snowbank near the edge of a forest. Wary that it might be a trap, Amethyst made sure everyone had their weapons at the ready. Daniel held his radio reciever down near the base of a large pile of snow.

"You think someone's in there?" Amethyst asked.

"Well, this is where the distress beacon's coming from," said Daniel. "It's buried pretty deep in the snow. I don't think it could have been left here by accident."

"Well," Carter said, "let's start digging."

"I'm on it," said Amethyst. She held out her arm, shapeshifting it into a large shovel.

Daniel shook his head. "I always forget she can do that."

Once Amethyst got near the bottom of the pile, she spotted something underneath. It looked like it could be a person, maybe in a thick jacket. As she cleared away the rest of the snow, Carter kneeled down to look at her. The young woman was bundled up, her hood covering most of her face.

"She looks human," Carter said. "She's unconcious, but I think she's still alive."

"Who is she?" Amethyst asked. "Is she one of the Tok'ra?"

"I'm not sure they would leave your radio with her and risk it falling into enemy hands," Garnet said. "I suppose it could be a trap. But I think we have to take the risk."

"Yeah, you're right," said Amethyst. "Let's bring her back to the SGC."

* * *

"I thought you might want to take a look," said Dr. Fraiser as Amethyst arrived at the infirmary.

"How is she?" Amethyst asked.

"She seems to be in perfect health. It's like the cold didn't affect her at all. And I think I know why, although if I had never met you, I might not have believed it."

"I'm guessing it's not a trap, then? No hidden bombs or viruses like last time?"

"I doubt it."

The two of them walked over to the patient's bed, where she was sleeping.

"She has a symbiote attached to the brain stem, just like the other Tok'ra and the Goa'uld," Fraiser continued. "But she _also_ has a gemstone embedded in her body. A pearl."

"...Is that even possible?"

"Apparently it is. Maybe the symbiote is helping to integrate the two. The Gem part of her seems to be projecting part of her body as physical light, just like yours. The midsection of her body, and most of her digestive system, are all a projection, but everything above and below that is biological."

"Oof. Sounds like she had a pretty rough time."

"Well, whatever the symbiote and the Gem are doing, it seems to be holding her together. We'll keep an eye on her, at least until she wakes up."


	5. Chapter 5

As Amelia woke up, she realized she was in a bed - not a snowbed, an _actual_ bed. She opened her eyes to look around. The room was rather drab, so it was probably a human facility. Whether she was on Earth or one of their outposts, she couldn't tell.

There were two other people in the room: a concerned-looking Pearl, seated in a chair next to the bed, and a human man across the room, reading a magazine.

"Colonel?" the Pearl said. "I think she's awake."

"I told you, you can call me Jack." The man got up and walked over to the bedside. "Amethyst is the colonel around here."

"Where am I?" asked Amelia.

"Earth," O'Neill said. "Stargate Command. I'm Jack O'Neill. This is Pearl."

Amelia sat up. "I've never actually met another Pearl before, believe it or not. Although I should probably ask you a few questions. To make sure there aren't any tricks. You live here in the U.S., right?"

O'Neill nodded.

"How many states are there?"

"Fifty."

"Thirty-nine."

O'Neill and Pearl looked at each other.

"We probably aren't the right people to ask," O'Neill said.

"Should you really be moving around?" asked Pearl. "You are missing... most of your intestines."

"Oh, that?" Amelia asked. "That _just_ happened. It's really not a big deal. My mom is going to hold it together until my dad can get it fixed."

"And Mom and Dad are...?" asked Pearl.

"Pearl of Luna and Cormar of Anil."

"A Gem and a Tok'ra symbiote," Pearl said. "Just like we thought."

"Can we talk to either of them?" O'Neill asked.

"I'm afraid not," said Amelia. "I can feel their emotions, and know what they're thinking, but... Something about their close proximity to each other prevents them from separating their conciousnesses from mine. Sometimes I wish I could meet them face to face. And by sometimes I mean a lot."

* * *

"So I heard it was bring your parents to work day." Amethyst turned on the lights as she walked into the conference room, with O'Neill, Pearl, and Amelia behind her.

"Is this everyone?" Amelia asked.

"Well, everyone who's been briefed on your situation so far," Pearl said, "and who's in the complex right now."

"It's 0200 hours," O'Neill explained. "Most of SG-1 is at home sleeping. Amethyst just happens to live here."

"We'd like to know about your situation," said Pearl, "so it's only fair we tell you about ours. Is that all right, Amethyst?"

"Well, I guess Major General Hammond would be the person to ask, but he said I could decide what to tell Amelia, so... yeah, go ahead."

"Pearl and I are from different universes," O'Neill explained. "We're alternate versions of people who already exist here. That's why we were staying here overnight. It's not like I can go back to my house when it's taken by, well, me."

"Jack is from a world where the Gems don't exist," said Pearl. "And I'm from a world that doesn't have the Stargate. In my universe, the Gems are the only aliens who've made it to Earth."

"What about you, Amelia?" Amethyst asked. "I figure you must have signaled us with that radio because you got stuck in the snowstorm when the Tok'ra were evacuating the planet?"

"Well, I actually volunteered to be the one to stay behind this time and cover our tracks. To be honest, I think someone is after me, and I don't know if running from one planet to another with the Tok'ra is going to protect me anymore like it used to."

"There's someone after you? Like, just you, not anyone else."

"I think it might be a rogue Gem. They used to follow my parents around, too, trying to split them apart."

"But if they were split apart now... wouldn't that kill you?"

"Well, yeah, but that's not really why-"

"Wait." O'Neill leaned forward. "Is this how you lost a good chunk of your torso?"

"Well, it's not the worst thing that's happened. This one was a little strange, actually. It was some sort of bomb, I guess, but it made the same sound as those Gem warp pads. It looked like it was going to split into two separate warp streams for a little bit. I mean, until it exploded... Well, at least this person is only interested in me. Makes it easy for the rest of the Tok'ra to get away."

"So you've been dealing with assassination attempts _since you were born_."

"The Tok'ra are always on the move." Amelia shrugged. "It usually helps keep me safe most of the time. But recently I feel like I've just been a liability."

Amethyst groaned. "Please stop talking like that. Nobody should _expect_ to have someone wanting to kill them, just because they don't think your parents be..."

She glanced over at O'Neill and Pearl, paused briefly, and then got up and ran over to the computer.

"If you have an idea, it might be quicker just to tell us," Pearl suggested.

"Yeah, bad habit." Amethyst remained focused on the computer. "Amelia? Didn't you say this most recent attack was weird?"

"Well, it did look like a warp stream opening at first. I don't know why you'd use that to make a bomb, though."

"And it was about eight days ago?"

"Well, adjusting for Earth's 24-hour orbit... yeah, I suppose so."

Amethyst looked at the computer screen for a couple more seconds, then shut it off. "I gotta call Capt. Carter," she said as she walked out the door.

O'Neill pushed his chair back and stood up. "Again with the not telling us things?"

* * *

Later that morning, Amethyst pulled the rest of SG-1 together in hopes of hammering out a working theory of what was going on.

"Garnet - do you know if Gems have ever had the technology to travel between different universes?"

"Not that I've ever seen," Garnet replied.

"Do you think Homeworld could have come up with it?"

"There are several timelines where they develop the technology. Usually to return to this universe after being trapped in another one."

"So only as a defense mechanism?" Daniel asked. "Against technology developed by other alien races?"

Garnet nodded.

"If we're talking about a rogue Gem," Carter noted, "not affiliated with Homeworld or with Earth, it's possible she could have stolen such a device and tried to use it as a sort of weapon."

"Do you think that could be why Pearl and O'Neill showed up here when they did?" asked Amethyst.

"The Tok'ra sent us the exact time the attack happened. It lines up exactly. But I don't understand how something happening so far away, with someone who's never been to Earth before, could affect Earth's Stargate."

"Well, Earth is the only planet we know of that the Gems and the Goa'uld both tried to colonize," Daniel said. "Maybe this is where it was trying to send her. It could be the only planet that's inhabited in all three universes."

"But what are the chances that Earth could be the _only_ planet that they'd all have in common?" Amethyst asked.

"The only universe that the device would be locked to would be this one," said Garnet. "The other two universes could have been deliberately chosen so that Earth was the only common planet."

"The limited experience we've had with alternate universes so far would suggest that it's possible for a universe to be hand-picked to fit the given situation," Carter added. "Particularly the experience Daniel had. It seems unlikely he would have been sent to that world by chance."

"But where do we go from here?" asked Daniel. "We don't have any way to figure out who's doing this."

"But we do have Amelia," Garnet said. "I expect the assassin to know this. If they don't try to attack, we'll have succeeded in protecting her. And if they do, that's our chance to learn more."

* * *

Amethyst walked into the mostly empty cafeteria to find O'Neill and Pearl talking.

"So the ship is shaped like a pair of legs?"

"Well, I don't think it was designed that way to be _functional_. You can build a Gem ship pretty much any way you want."

"Even... just one leg would have made more sense. Which foot does the pilot go in?"

"Hey." Amethyst quietly sat down at the table. "Jack? Pearl? Do you have a second?"

"I suppose," said Pearl.

Amethyst sighed. "Do you really think I'm supposed to be here?"

"I mean, I'd say you're the only one who's supposed to be here," O'Neill said.

Pearl slid her chair over to be closer to Amethyst. "If this is what you want to do, of course you should do it. You've always decided the path of your own life. That's what I've always respected about you."

"But I'm not the person who's supposed to be in charge of SG-1! It's _clearly_ supposed to be O'Neill!"

"Okay, here's the thing," O'Neill replied. "You don't exist in my universe. We needed everyone we could get. I don't think Hammond tries nearly as hard to get me back into the Air Force if he has someone like you he can rely on."

"But you... you recruited the First Prime of Apophis!"

"You make it sound like I planned on it! The only difference was that we stuck around on Abydos instead of bringing Daniel back right away like you did. And that's only cause I _knew_ the guy. Neither of us had any idea the Serpent Guards were going to show up there when they did."

"But you were able to save so many people by being there!"

"And _you_ were able to save Sha're, and Skaara, and Major Kawalsky! In our world, the Goa'uld took them _all_ as hosts. I wouldn't call that a resounding victory."

"I've seen the way you work with that team, Amethyst," said Pearl. "You've really been an excellent leader. I don't think any of them have any doubts that you belong here."

"Not even Garnet?" Amethyst asked. "She has twice as much experience as I do."

"If Garnet thought that a different leader would lead to better results, she'd say so. She trusts you, Amethyst. They all do."


	6. Chapter 6

"Peridot, right?"

"Yes. What are you doing here?"

"I'm an Amethyst. I'm _from_ here. What about you?"

"I'm trying to correct an imperfection in the universe."

"Dang. You're just gonna tell me? I was hoping that you came to look at the eclipse."

"What's an eclipse?"

"It's when the moon is just barely covering up the sun, but not the edges, so everything's all dark and there's just, like, a really bright circle in the sky."

"Wouldn't the sun and moon appear to be different sizes from this planet's surface?"

"Nope. This planet's moon is _exactly_ the right size."

"_No way_."

"Wow. I didn't expect you to be _that_ excited. If you really wanted to see it, you should have checked before blatantly breaking federal law."

"What law?"

"You're not allowed in this building without permission! The people with rifles should have at least been a clue. Did you really think you could just walk in here without anyone stopping you?"

"Our physical forms are impervious to the weapons humans use to fight the Goa'uld."

"Which is why the guards have other kinds of weapons too. You don't think we were prepared to fight other Gems? This used to be a Gem planet! I have to say, you seem a little inexperienced for someone who was able to hunt down the Tok'ra and plant a bomb at their hideout."

"A bomb? I don't make bombs."

"Well, it exploded."

"It _exploded_!? It's not supposed to do that!"

"Then what's it supposed to do?"

"It's a dimensional travel device. Actually, two. I keyed them to two separate universes and connected them together. I used it to send a bunch of small rocks over, so I don't know why it wouldn't work this time."

"I mean, it did blow a hole through someone's torso."

"It wasn't going to kill her. That's not where her gem is. There's nothing important there."

"Well, there _was_! You're lucky she can grow them back."

"Wait. She had actual biological tissue? Ew. Gross. Anyway, I was never trying to kill her. I just wanted to split her apart."

"But why?"

"She clearly isn't supposed to exist! Gems fuse with other Gems, not with weird worm things!"

"She's not a fusion, Peridot. She's... they had a kid. You know, like humans do. You've studied the Goa'uld, you should know what kids are."

"Gems don't have kids."

"Well, I don't know how it's possible either. Maybe it's because the symbiote's in there to keep the human stuff and Gem stuff together. But it's true."

"Is this some sort of hoax?"

"Man, I'd love to pull pranks on you if I had the time. But there's another matter that we could use you help with."

"What makes you think I'll help you?"

"I mean, do you want to go on trial for almost killing her?"

"I wasn't _trying_ to kill her!"

"Yeah, well, it still would have been involuntary manslaughter. You can probably tell by the name, it's _pretty bad_."

"Fine. What is it?"

"You seem to know something about alternate universes. And ever since that funky mirror got destroyed by a bunch of rubies, we haven't had a way to travel between them even if we wanted to. But apparently a couple of stragglers from other realities wound up coming through our Stargate, and we can't figure out how to get them back."

"These stragglers - are they Gems?"

"One's a human."

"Really? A human? That shouldn't be possible, the entropic cascade failure should have kicked in by now. It must be something in the technology, maybe it was designed to protect against-"

"You can study on your own time, Peridot. And I think we'd all prefer you don't do it on other people."

* * *

Hammond and Amethyst met in the hallway.

"Do you think we can trust her?" Hammond asked.

"I don't think she's lying," said Amethyst. "I don't know if she's ever even tried to. Besides, from what I can tell, she's only responsible for this most recent incident."

"Her reaction would suggest that. So there could still be someone else out there?"

"Could be. But I think we can deal with that later. Right now, Peridot's our only lead on getting Pearl and O'Neill back."

"We still need to be skeptical. I'll have the other SG teams analyze what we know, and make sure there's no obvious reason this device can't exist."

"Good idea. If everything checks out after that, I suppose we could go back to P1W-358 and grab the one Peridot left there."

"Wouldn't the device have been destroyed in the explosion?"

"Maybe, but I don't think so. Usually, when Gem tech gets destroyed, it undoes whatever it did. So if it is still there" - Amethyst shrugged - "all we need to do is smash it to bits."


	7. Chapter 7

The team stood at the base of the base of the Stargate, preparing to return to Earth. Much of the snow had melted away since the last time they had visited the planet, and it hadn't been hard to locate the device.

"And it was still intact?" Amethyst asked.

"Nothing appears to be wrong with it," said Garnet.

"We think the explosion might have been a byproduct of the dimensional rift," added Carter. "Essentially, it brought an explosion from another universe to this one. But the device itself is still intact."

"Well, we're probably going to blow it up anyway," Amethyst said.

Daniel began entering Earth's Stargate address on the dialing pad, but was interrupted by the sound of weapons fire behind him.

"Look out!" he shouted.

As the team took cover, a handful of Jaffa guards came out from hiding, armed with their staff weapons. The leader of the guards approached.

"Identify yourself," he said.

"Colonel Amethyst, Facet 5, Cut 8XM, SG-1, Stargate Command, U.S. Air Force, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80906. You?"

"I am the first prime of Apophis. Hand over the device."

"Teal'c, right? Is that with an apostrophe before the C, or not?"

"If you do not hand it over," Teal'c continued, "I will render this Chappa'ai inoperable and prevent you from returning."

"Is it all right if we just borrow it for a bit? It would be really-"

Teal'c raised his staff weapon and fired a single shot at the dialing pad. Jolts of electricity shot out of the device.

"You will now find this device inoperable," he said. "With two symbols already encoded, you will not be able to dial it manually, and you will not be able to return to your planet. We will return shortly in greater number to collect you."

And with that, Teal'c and the other Jaffa guards walked away.

"He's right," Daniel said. "The Stargate is stuck halfway through the dialing process. The dialing device is keeping it locked there, but the controls are unresponsive. Should we just wait here for reinforcements?"

"I hope it doesn't come to that," said Carter. "We have no idea when they're coming back, or how much firepower they'll bring with them."

Amethyst looked back at the hills where the Jaffa had retreated to, out of sight, and grinned.

"I think he was trying to help us out," she said. "Garnet. We need to destroy this dialing pad. As long as it's here being all funky, it's not gonna let us do anything with the Stargate."

Garnet nodded.

The two of them quickly linked hands. As Garnet began to lift Amethyst up off the ground, their physical forms began to glow, becoming a single bright white light that grew to an enormous size before taking the form of a single being. She kept the momentum of the lift, carrying it through to a swing of her flail and landing the weapon right on top of the dialing pad, smashing it to bits.

As the dust of the impact cleared, the two of them had already unfused and the lights on the Stargate had reset, making it free for dialing again. Amethyst was ready for the next step of the plan.

"Sam," she said. "You've got the dialing computer's drift adjustment on your phone, right? We'll need it if we're going to dial manually."

Carter pulled out her phone. "Yeah, it's here, but it's written to assume that Earth is the origin planet. Maybe if- oh. This would probably be easier." She handed the phone to Amethyst. "There's two other Stargates nearby, even closer than Abydos is to Earth. We should be able to get there without adjusting the address at all."

"And then we can dial out to Earth from there," Amethyst said. "The trip might get a little chilly, but it's nothing we haven't done before."

"But how are we going to dial the Stargate without a dialing pad? Doing it by hand takes time, and I don't know how much we have."

"OK, so here's my idea. We need two things: a power source to jumpstart the gate, and something that can quicky move the inner ring, right? Well, I should be able to give it enough of a jolt with my whip." Amethyst pulled the whip out of her gemstone and held it by her side. "As for spinning it... Garnet, remember when you were on the celebrity edition of _The Price is Right_?"

"I hope this plan doesn't involve guessing how much an ice cream maker costs," said Daniel.

"If this was Cliff Hangers, I'd be asking you," Amethyst said. "No, this is about the wheel. Garnet nailed the $1.00 spot two times in a row. I think she's got the strength and accuracy to spin this thing."

As Amethyst wrapped her whip around the outer ring of the Stargate, Garnet walked up to the side. Elongating her arms to reach up near the top, she grabbed the inner ring and pulled it downwards with just enough force that the gate stopped with the first symbol of the address in position.

"You know what these could use?" Amethyst said to Daniel. "Those little holes you put your finger in on the old phones."

Garnet dialed the next six symbols just as precisely as the first, and sure enough, the wormhole opened in front of them. The team raced through to the other side, ready to return to Earth with the dimensional portal device in hand.


	8. Chapter 8

"You know," O'Neill told Pearl, "Amethyst seems pretty sure that destroying that thing would send us back."

"It _would _make sense," Pearl said.

"Then why are they messing with it and trying to figure out how it works?"

"Isn't the primary mission of the SGC to learn about alien culture and technology?" asked Pearl. "Not necessarily to use it, but certainly to defend yourselves."

"Well, that thing gives me the creeps. I wish they would just go ahead and smash it."

O'Neill took a bite of pumpkin pie. The two of them had returned to the mess hall, having little to do except wait while the researchers tried to figure out the Gem technology they had acquired.

"You seem to be in a hurry to get back home," Pearl said. "Is being here uncomfortable for you?"

"Not _here_, no. It's everywhere else in this base. I keep running into people I know, and they don't recognize me at all. I'm being treated like I'm not supposed to be here."

"Well, you're not."

"I know!"

Pearl paused. "Hmm. I suppose once we go back, we aren't going to remember this incident, are we?"

"I hope not. I mean, not because of you. You're great. We have nothing in common, of course, but that's not your fault."

"We _did _both lose loved ones under unusual circumstances that had major effects on your lives."

"Fair point. Besides, it's nice talking to someone who _hasn't_ forgotten who I am. Just someone who never knew me in the first place. See? That's normal." O'Neill took another bite of his pie. "Besides, I'm probably not supposed to know about the future anyway. In my world, it's still the nineties, remember? We don't have flatscreens or smartphones. We don't even have the Wii."

"So you can't play that golf game with the little pink guy?" Pearl asked.

"Oh, no, we've got that. Nobody's as good at it as you, though."

"You'll learn."

"I'll forget, first. Although considering how different this world is, I bet the game's different here too."

"Is it really that different?" Pearl asked.

"Well, yeah. Mostly because there are aliens on Earth here, and everyone knows about them. Where I'm from, it's a secret. It's a whole different situation. I doubt all the stuff we did here is even physically possible where I'm from."

The two sat quietly for a while.

"You?" asked O'Neill.

"What about me?"

"Did you learn anything you think you can use? If you end up remembering it?"

"Well... I suppose looking at Ameila. I see a lot of myself in the way she acts. She's too quick to put herself in danger. I guess it reminds me of my own shortcomings."

"You think she got it from her mom?"

"It seems likely. When Pearls start out, there's a certain... I guess what I'm trying to say is that seeing someone else like myself in this context, it might help me understand what other Pearls are going through."

* * *

"So you're going to stay here on Earth?" Daniel asked.

"At least for now." Amelia zipped up her backpack and put one strap around her shoulder. "I think it makes more sense this way. I always assumed the people trying to kill me were the same people trying to kill all the other Tok'ra. But if it's not, well... I don't want to give them more problems than they already have."

"But are you going to be safe here? You really ought to be taking this seriously."

"Don't worry, Daniel. I'm not going to be trying to hide anymore. I'm going to find a place with people who are already fighting, already defending themselves. People who have a home and the ability to protect it. And hopefully I can help them do that."

"Are you going to fight?"

"Well, sure. It wouldn't be the first time." Amelia knelt down to rearrange the clothes in her duffel bag. "You know I've got a spear, right?"

"In the bag?"

"No, like... you know how Amethyst's got the whip, and Garnet has those cool glove things. I can summon a spear from my gem. I would have offered to help, but I figured you didn't want me running around while trying to regrow my digestive tract."

* * *

A beam of light hit the warp pad, and Amethyst appeared on it, out of uniform.

"Not taking an airplane this time, eh, Amethyst?"

"That was an _emergency_, Steven! We needed the plane!" Amethyst jumped onto the sofa. "Besides, they said they'd rather I took the warp stream. Leaves the aircraft available for other stuff."

"I hope you're not here to ask for my help with the Stargate." Steven was in the middle of folding laundry. He pulled out a black shirt. "I've been really busy lately running the school, and honestly, I don't know if I'm cut out for it."

"Don't worry. I just came here to eat your food. You know the drill."

Steven went over to the cupboard and grabbed a loaf of bread, throwing it in Amethyst's general direction. "Don't you have to wear your hair short in the Air Force?"

"That's what shapeshifting is for. I'm not on duty now, so might as well take advantage of it." Amethyst took a bit out of the bread without bothering to unwrap it. "You know that fighting isn't my main job, right, Steven? I mean, I guess I'm technically a soldier, but-"

"Are you worried what I think about it? Amethyst, you're an adult. You've been around hundreds of years. You can do your thing, and I'll do mine. I'm okay. Trust me."


End file.
